1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine having cooled exhaust gas recirculation (herein after referred to as either “EGR” or exhaust gas recirculation).
2. Related Art
Exhaust gas recirculation has been used with automotive engines for many years. EGR cooling has also been used, but has proven to be difficult to package in modern, crowded engine compartments. Space and packaging problems arise because the cooler itself is ideally placed close by the engine so as to minimize pressure losses, and also to reduce the package volume itself. Usually, too, such coolers are separate components from the other major components of the engine and this increases the cost and complexity of EGR coolers. Finally, remotely mounted EGR coolers present the potential for coolant leaks.
It would be desirable to provide an EGR cooler which is integral with other major components of the engine and which reduces the number of parts required to build an engine, while occupying minimum package volume, or space, within an engine compartment.